A man who was forced off the road after allegedly being cut off by another driver cannot present testimony from yet a third driver who claims the defendant cut him off a month earlier, a state judge has ruled. In his suit against Ashley Romano over a 2004 accident, Jonathan Bari sought to present testimony that Ms. Romano had cut off another man. Ms. Romano denies being involved in Mr. Bari’s accident.
But Acting Supreme Court Justice Joseph C. Pastoressa in Suffolk County (See Profile) ruled that the proposed testimony is barred by a rule against showing an individual committed an act by presenting evidence of a past act. Exceptions to the rule apply only when the defendant’s “guilty knowledge or wrongful intent” is in question, he said. Here, the actual act is in dispute, he noted. “It is no different than were the plaintiff to attempt to prove that a defendant ran a red light by seeking to admit evidence that the same defendant ran a red light on a prior occasion. Clearly inadmissible,” the judge wrote in Bari v. Romano, 25378-2006.
